Aloha Tiki Tribe!
Well, That whole Copy Right theft thing with Cafe Press.com is eating my brain! It's taking all my desire to make art away. Why make art if it's so easy for big corporations to steal it, and get away - by law - with it?
Gotta step away, pretend the world is not as evil and crooked as it is, and listen to some Martin Denny, and make some Art!

tikicoma - My Lawyers have tried. It's harder than you'd think... I guess the really insidious thing about This Cafe Press.com "Print On Demand" business plan is it targets that small percentage of the population that really don',t know the law, can't usually afford a lawyer (I.P. Lawyers can be $300 to $700 an hour or more) , and are very easily intimidated by the other side's Lawyers and legal threats. "ARTISTS"!
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Wendy - thank you....I try to follow the things my mentors have told me. 1. thing is "Follow your Bliss." I never quite grasped the meaning of that for many years. Another mentor told me "Do what you Love, and Love what you do." That seemed to cook in my noodle. And I think I got that one, so with the support of some great folks, including a really kick -ass Art Agent / manager, I started painting on canvas Low-Brow-Tiki-Art.

Of course the twist is both of those is the unspoken "How do I pay the rent while I'm doing what I love?"

Very good question. One that stops many art careers. No easy answer, just more work, and a slow progression towards your "bliss" and a certain "Leap before you look" kinda thing some where in there... always is. It's risky. No way around that, at least that I have found yet.

Anyways, one way to make these wise teachings fit together, is LUCK. We are LUCKY to be experiencing a time when "Low-Brow" and "Tiki-Art" Art is becoming popular with a larger audience.

I recently hooked up with one of the largest sellers of souvenirs in Hawaii: "K C Hawaii". You ever been to the islands? been in an ABC Store? (they are almost on every corner) and looked at the resin tikis made over seas?... these are all made by KC Hawaii. I figured it was a good match that I team up with a company that has been making Tiki Souvenirs for generations. I could tell you it was very hard to crack the Hawaii Market and get my Art to a distributor who liked "Tiki" and understood it. How the Hawaii Tourist Trade has been under the control of 3 or 4 family owned businesses for a long, long time, and they are not about to let anyone get between them and that unending ever flowing tourist river of Benjimins pouring into Hawaii from every other part of the globe. No. I could even tell you the whole experience took years of slowly wearing them down till they would look at my work, and then test it, once or twice, How there were a few miss-starts and I got grossly underpaid by some other old family business who also has an Iron fist/ Kung-Fu Grip on the Hawaii tourist trade, but, how finally, with the help and the "say-so" of some local person of undetermined importance I finally got offered a contract to work with "KC Hawaii". YES! KC HAWAII - It's run in a very, V E R Y, unassuming urban part of Honolulu. Near the Port.
Looks only like an old, worn down, wear house on the outside.
Yet... inside... it is a virtual labyrinth of long rooms stacked with exotic goods, peopled by tough looking guys in all black.
It's managed by three imposing looking fellas in swanky business suits,
,,,known as "The Three Storms", and they report to their boss, and extremely old man in a wheel chair named David Lopan.
...but sometimes David Lopan transmogrifies from his Old Man's Crippled Body into a seven foot mystic Chinese Wizard.
It's at those times, you do not want to be late on your dead lines, or get your pan tone colors mixed up.
Or... I might have the whole thing confused with a really great old movie called "Big Trouble in Little China" made by John Carpenter back in 1986.

Aloha Tiki Tribe!
So as I was talking story with ya' I was telling ya' about how to get your dream job and your dreams together, by working with one of the largest Hawaiian souvenir companies in the islands. KC Hawaii.
They are some really nice folks and just brimming with "ALOHA"!
They make almost every single Tiki Souvenir you can buy in Hawaii at a Tourist gift shop.
One Job I am working on right now is designing some Beach Towels based on the paintings of my Tiki-Art.
Great Idea! Glad David Lopan came up with it. I love it, and I get to work on it! I'm really excited.
Problem, or as we like to say in the "Art Business", one "Challenge-and-learning-opertunity" is how do I
fit the painting that Mr. David Lopan likes on to a beach towel? They are different aspect ratios. Ones a long rectangle, and the other one's more square.
So, David Lopan wants...
..."The Moon of Manakoora": This Painting is named after an old Martin Denny tune, and is an acrylic painting on canvas, that's 24" x 30". However a beach towel is 30" x 60". Hmmm. Learning experience.
Idea one: Mirror the Art to make more so it's longer and fits the aspect ratio of the Towel.
This thought came to me when I saw how my gallery likes to have giclees "Gallery Wrapped" - meaning wrapped around a wooden frame, with image in the sides so it can be hung with out having to have it framed.
Okay, but this makes for a unusual beach towel design, and needs to look a little more like it's supposed to fit on a Beach Towel.
In the computer program photoshop I darken the mirrored areas to take emphasis off the repeated image.
Then I put on a big piece of Text. Tourists love Words that describe their vacations. "Aloha" is a good one, very well known, and well liked. Plus, it's not the name of One island, letting you sell the same towels on all the islands.
Then I wanted it to have a more customized look, than a "Right out of Photoshop" look, so I pick a more interesting font, and add my own hand made text on top of the other darkened area.
Then I create a "Window" out of the Big ol' word "ALOHA" to show some more Art on the Towel - this wave is from another painting I did.
Then I turn the thing side ways to check how the Painting is looking. The towel seems to work pretty much OK, on it's side or on it's end. Good. I then add in some Pin-striping to tie the elements together. Lucky (again) for me: the people who dig Tiki often also dig Hot-Rods and thus, pin-striping is something they might like on their beach towel.
Then I spice up the hand Done "Tiki-Shark" text at the top with a few line running across them to give it more color, and have both ends of the towel seem equally interesting.

Taa-Daa!
finished. Maybe. Now we have to wait to find out what David Lopan thinks of it after he LOOKS at it.
Okay. lesson is over.
See ya next time on how to "Do what you love, and Love what you do".

Atomic Tiki Punk~ U AWK!
Wendy - very funny, you should give that movie a watch. It'sáreally good. And my old Kung-Fu teacher (Eric Lee) is one of the bad guys in it, as well as being the action stunt double for the Asian lead. That's him.
Kai Koa ~ Thank you! An you are totally correct on where that wave came from!

I talked to Bobby, (He's David Lopan son, I do believe) and he really liked what I did to the Moon of Manakoora towel. Was very excited, and said it was like a whole new piece of art! Wow, I really dig it when you and your partners in production get equally excited about stuff - Tiki Stuff! Makes the the process more fun and you put in the extra hours to make it as good as you can. Mr. had one change request, which my agent said was what he was thinking too. They felt a little uncomfortable putting the name and logo of another company (MY Company) on what is supposed to be one of their towels, (Lopan Tiki Shark) I knew that might be an issue, I just wanted to throw something hand lettered in there that would show how it would work, and since I had this computer melt down a few months back, that was the only hand done lettering I had around! Heck my name is already on the towel, I don't need to be pig and try to hog up the whole darned thing anyways!

Lopan Aka' gonna replace (TIKI SHARK) with "The moon of Sooooo" in hand lettering. We both thought that was a good idea: heck it's descriptive (being the NAME of the painting) , and if any beach towel buying kids "Ima "The Moon of MANAKOORA" they just might learn a little about Tiki-Culture, and might even go out & rent "The HURRICANE" and watch a great old movie!
More google as I create some hand made letters....

You have been busy Brad!
Such are the mind-numbing labours to translate painting to product...
Glad to hear the enthusiasm in your voice as well as get to look at that Gorgeous painting after staring at it everyday during it's visit to the studio so many years ago....Your energy,enthusiasm,child-like wonder,and PURE love of art is always a joy to hear! Go Brad!